The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced several recalls and took actions regarding OxyContin for the period of April 1 through April 17, 2013. Consumers should make sure they are not using any of the recalled products. In addition, OxyContin users should be aware of these latest actions including banning the use and sale of generic OxyContin.

A prosecutor who provides official letterhead of the prosecutor’s office to a debt collection company for use by that company to create a letter purporting to come from the prosecutor’s office that implicitly or explicitly threatens prosecution, when no lawyer from the prosecutor’s office reviews the case file to determine whether a crime has been committed and prosecution is warranted or reviews the letter to ensure it complies with the Rules of Professional Conduct, violates Model Rules 8.4(c) and 5.5(a)."

While not binding on any state, this seems like the correct decision. Debt collectors should not be able to deceive debtors using these type of tactics.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced yesterday that several defendants will pay approximately $10 million to the FTC to settle charges related to offers of "free" gift cards from major retailers. The "trifecta" of FTC violations are: spam text messages; illegal robocalls; and mobile cramming.

As stated in the October 22, 2014, FTC Press Release:

"The settlement marks the completion of a major effort by the FTC to crack down on the senders of unwanted text messages offering consumers “free” gift cards to retailers such as Best Buy, Walmart and Target. The messages contained links to websites that led consumers through a process that the FTC alleges was designed to get consumers’ personal information for sale to marketers, their mobile phone numbers to cram unwanted charges on their bill, and to drive them to paid subscriptions for which the scammers received affiliate referral fees."

The settlements are being paid by three sets of defendants in different amounts.

The first set of defendants is required to pay the FTC $7.8 million. The FTC alleged that this group of defendants was responsible for millions of illegal text messages, made deceptive claims about “free” merchandise, was responsible for unauthorized charges on mobile phone bills, and assisted and facilitated the sending of illegal robocalls. Under the terms of the settlement, these defendants will be banned from sending consumers unwanted text messages, as well as from placing charges of any kind onto a consumer’s telephone bill, whether landline or mobile. The settlement also bans the defendants from misrepresenting whether a product is free through a text message or webpage, and also requires the defendants to ensure that any affiliates working for them abide by the same provisions. In addition, the settlement requires the defendants to obtain consumers’ express informed consent before billing them and bans them from participating in illegal telemarketing. The defendants in this settlement are Acquinity Interactive, LLC; 7657030 Canada Inc., Garry Jonas, Gregory Van Horn, Revenue Path E-Consulting Pvt, Ltd.; Revenuepath Ltd.; and Sarita Somani.

The second set of defendants is required to pay the FTC $1.4 million. The FTC alleged that this set of defendants was responsible for cramming unauthorized charges on consumers’ mobile phone bills. Under the terms of the settlement, the defendants will be banned from placing charges of any kind on consumers’ telephone bills, as well as being banned from making any misrepresentations to consumers about a product or service, including the cost or a consumer’s obligation to pay. In addition, the defendants will be required to obtain consumers’ express informed consent before billing them for any good or service. The defendants in this settlement are Burton Katz, individually and also doing business as Polling Associates Inc. and Boomerang International, LLC, and Jonathan Smyth, individually and also doing business as Polling Associates Inc.

In the third settlement, an $8 million judgment is being suspended due to the defendants’ inability to pay, after they turn over available assets. The FTC alleged that this set of defendants was responsible for making millions of illegal robocalls. Under the settlement, the defendants are required to pay the FTC $100,000, as well as the surrender value of a life insurance policy and proceeds from the sale of: a 2013 Cadillac Escalade, two motorcycles, and a real estate holding in Southern California. The settlement also bans the defendants from illegally telemarketing consumers through robocalling. The defendants in this settlement are Firebrand Group S.L., LLC, Worldwide Commerce Associates, LLC, and Matthew Beucler.

A new and potentially crucial feature in iOS 8 allows an iPhone or iPad to send out its last-known location just before the device's battery dies, increasing the chances that a user might be able to recover their lost Apple product.

Jeffrey Lapin's insight:

Useful new feature in iOS 8, "Send Last Location," which automatically sends your iOS device's last known location when the battery is critically low.

In the age of surveillance paranoia, most smartphone users know better than to give a random app or website permission to use their device’s microphone. But researchers have found there’s another, little-considered sensor in modern phones that can also listen in on their conversations. And it doesn’t even need to ask. In a presentation at…

Jeffrey Lapin's insight:

New potential privacy concern with your smartphone: Phone gyroscopes might be able to allow apps to eavesdrop.

The gyroscope in phones, which are used to measure a phone's orientation, are sensitive enough to pick up some sound waves, which turns them into a crude microphone.

Dan Boneh, a computer security professor at Stanford, summed the issue succinctly, "Whenever you grant anyone access to sensors on a device, you’re going to have unintended consequences."

New potential privacy concern with your smartphone: Phone gyroscopes might be able to allow apps to eavesdrop.

Essentially, the gyroscope in iOS and Android phones, which are used to measure a phone's orientation, are sensitive enough to pick up some sound waves, which turns them into a crude microphone, according to researchers.

Dan Boneh, a computer security professor at Stanford, summed the issue succinctly, "Whenever you grant anyone access to sensors on a device, you’re going to have unintended consequences."

Both iOS and Android devices use gyroscopes that can pick up sound vibrations. However, iOS limits the reading of the gyroscopes to 100 hertz, which makes audio spying much more difficult. Android devices are more vulnerable as they allows apps to read the sensor’s data at twice that speed. Google is likely aware of this issue.

While it is believed that this using gyroscopes to eavesdrop has not been exploited yet, the potential is there. As speech recognition improves, these vulnerabilities become more of a threat.

Google could make Android less vulnerable by limiting the frequency like Apple does. Another possibility, which phones have or are implemented, is limiting the gyroscope frequency and even its use on a system-wide or app-by-app basis.

Use an activity-tracking device, such as a fitness tracking band, or application? Users should be very cautious due to serious security issues as your data may not be safe. These tracking devices and applications contain a lot of personal, private information. According to Symantec, in a Report

Jeffrey Lapin's insight:

Security Concerns With Self-Tracking Devices

Use an activity device or application? If so, be very cautious when using a self-tracking device or application due to serious security issues as your data may not be safe according to a Report from Symantec.

Are you a part of the Quantified Self Movement, which is using technology to measure your activities to improve yourself? According to Report from Symantec, users of tracking devices and applications need to be very concerned about security with these devices and applications. Symantec found major security issues with many devices and apps.

There are people making millions from meddling with your computer. Every click and e-mail can bring you within reach of them. How do you protect yourself? By learning what techniques they use and what you can do about them. Here's your guide to ransomware and the other threats that you might encounter. Ransomware Ransomware is…

Jeffrey Lapin's insight:

Don’t Fall Foul of the Scammers: A Guide To Ransomware & Other Threats

"There are people making millions from meddling with your computer. Every click and e-mail can bring you within reach of them. How do you protect yourself? By learning what techniques they use and what you can do about them."

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. Never email yourself a file again!

Jeffrey Lapin's insight:

Dropbox is updating its Terms of Service (TOS) to require mandatory arbitration in the event of a dispute. You can opt-out, which I believe must be done by March 24, 2014, the date the new TOS go into effect. You can opt-out here: https://www.dropbox.com/arbitration_optout.

Read the entire post about the TOS and Privacy Policy changes by Ramsey Homsany on the Dropbox blog

We use our mobile devices everywhere and for everything. Yet we rarely pay much mind to security. Use this guide to protect yourself and your important data on mobile.

Jeffrey Lapin's insight:

10 ways to protect your privacy on mobile devices:

1. Use a Passcode2. Be Selective With Your Apps3. Don’t Click on Suspicious Links4. Enable Remote Wiping5. Keep Software Up to Date6. Use Security Applications7. Stay Off of Open Wi-Fi Networks8. Write Down Your IMEI9. Back Up Your Phone Regularly10. Guard the Data on Your Sim Card

Findings: "Secret questions are neither secure nor reliable enough to be used as a standalone account recovery mechanism. That's because they suffer from a fundamental flaw: their answers are either somewhat secure or easy to remember—but rarely both."

Attorney Jeffrey Lapin of Lincoln, South Dakota, is the operator of the StopBadCollectors.com website. In this PersonalInjury.com interview, Jeffrey exposes abusive debt collection tactics and explains the rights consumers have.

Jeffrey Lapin's insight:

Jeffrey Lapin was interviewed by Larry Bodine, Editor in Chief of PersonalInjury.com, regarding abusive debt collection tactics as well as the rights consumers have regarding debt collection.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) created a Scorecard to measure the actual security of “secure messaging” tools and apps. None of the popular messaging apps received a perfect score and some received a very low grade. Apple’s FaceTime and iMessage had some of the higher scores among the popular apps. The EFF’s results may be very surprising to some who thought their messages were very secure.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) created a Scorecard to measure the actual security of “secure messaging” tools and apps. None of the popular messaging apps received a perfect score and some received a very low grade. Apple’s FaceTime and iMessage had some of the higher scores among the popular apps. The EFF’s results may be very surprising to some who thought their messages were very secure.

Using the 7 criteria, either a green checkmark or a red "no" symbol was placed on the Scorecard.

Only six apps received all green checkmarks: ChatSecure; CryptoCat; Signal/Redphone; Silent Phone; Silent Text; and TextSecure.

The EFF Scorecard results for some of the more popular messaging apps and tools:

Apple FaceTime: 5 green checkmarks

Apple iMessage: 5 green checkmarks

Facebook chat: 2 green checkmarks

Google Hangouts: 2 green checkmarks

Skype: 2 green checkmarks

SnapChat: 2 green checkmarks

WhatsApp: 2 green checkmarks

AIM: 1 green checkmark

Kik Messenger: 1 green checkmark

Yahoo! Messenger: 1 green checkmark

These scores may be surprising to some who thought their messages were more secure.

The EFF is quick to point out that the scorecard results “should not be read as endorsements of individual tools or guarantees of their security” and that closer examinations of many of the apps and tools will be conducted later.

A recent article in Consumer Affairs by Mark Huffman, "Why you might fall for a phishing scam" describes some of the problems there are in trying to warn people about phishing scams:

Information is power and, when it comes to the criminal underground, it might as well be gold. Scammers who pick up chunks of information about you can quickly pick your pocket.

An effective phishing scam almost always involves trickery and deception. A message in your email inbox is not what it first appears. ...

The challenge, then, is to find a way to identify these bogus pitches/threats and warn consumers before they make a costly error in judgment.

Two professors at the University of Alabama in Huntsville are studying phishing scams to determine the best way to help protect people from them:

The researchers say your response to a [phishing scam] warning is based on the strength of the authority issuing it. In addition, you have to understand it, remember it, change your attitude and be motivated enough to change your behavior. ...

The majority of us use Google. It opens up the Internet, lets us explore and learn. It helps us expand our minds. And in return, it's collected information about you. That much, we know. It's common knowledge. A phrase that has quite recently become everyday is: "If you're not paying for the product, you are…

Jeffrey Lapin's insight:

Five Things Google Probably Knows About You

by Philip Bates via MakeUseOf

The 5 things listed in the article are:

Demographic information: gender and ageYour interestsYour IP address, which may be where you liveWhat's in your GmailWhen you use the internet

Depending on your settings and whether you use Google products, such as Google+, Google might know a lot more.

Should you care that Google knows these things? Probably not except for Gmail, which should never be used for confidential or private emails anyway.

You can limit some of the things Google knows about you by changing some of your Google and browser settings. The article suggests not using Google for search as some other search engines do not track you. However, the only way to be completely anonymous online is to stay off the internet.

Some of these seem like common sense but, unless you actually read the TOS, which you should but probably have not, you do not know what you have agreed to when using these sites. These types of things are not just limited to these sites.

If you feel uneasy about something or it seems to good to be true it might very well be a scam. There are a lot of resources available to consumers to help them make sure something is not a scam. These include: lawyers; BBB; local, state and federal agencies; and Google searches.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that a Florida U.S. District Court issued a contempt order against Byron Wolf and Roy Eliasson for continuing to operate a scheme defrauding consumers, which was in violation of a a 2008 permanent injunction. This contempt order requires the pair to pay $14.75 million, which is the amount they illegally took from consumers.

After a hearing, the Florida court found that these two individuals had "Sent messages to consumers communicating they had been 'approved' for a loan, none of them ever received a loan. Instead, many of their bank accounts were debited $49.95 or more a month after they provided their financial information to the defendants."

In 2008, 14 defendants agreed to an order settling the FTC’s charges, and were required to pay more than $16 million to provide refunds to defrauded consumers. Bryon Wolf and Roy Eliasson were ordered to pay over $11 million for their role in the scheme, and were barred from a variety of unlawful acts in the future, including misrepresenting material facts regarding an offer, failing to clearly disclose material terms during a sale, and debiting consumers’ accounts without their consent.

But according to the FTC’s motion for contempt, within months of the 2008 order, Wolf and Eliasson devised a new plan to defraud consumers through Membership Services, LLC, a firm they controlled. In this scheme, they used deceptive phone and internet solicitations to target recent loan applicants and misled them into believing they would provide them with cash advances, loans, or lines of credit. Instead, the defendants debited the consumers’ accounts for membership in a continuity program. Very few consumers used the program, and many cancelled when they found out the defendants had debited their accounts and planned to take additional payments from them in future months.

Based on this conduct, following a two day evidentiary hearing, the court found that the defendants had violated the terms of a court-ordered permanent injunction by engaging in some of the same kinds of deceptive tactics that led to the FTC’s prior case against them.

According to the court, while the defendants sent messages to consumers communicating they had been “approved” for a loan, none of them ever received a loan. Instead, many of their bank accounts were debited $49.95 or more a month after they provided their financial information to the defendants.

In January of 2011 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had asked drug manufacturers to limit the amount of acetaminophen to no more than 325 mg in each tablet or capsule by January 14, 2014. While more than 50% of manufacturers complied with this request, there were many who did not. Because of

Jeffrey Lapin's insight:

FDA Wants 325mg Acetaminophen Limit

On January 14, 2014, the FDA asked health care professionals to stop prescribing dosages of medication that exceed 325 milligrams (mg) of acetaminophen and to help prevent, in most situations, a patient from receiving more.

On January 14, 2014, the FDA asked health care professionals to stop prescribing dosages of medication that exceed 325 milligrams (mg) of acetaminophen and to help prevent, in most situations, a patient from receiving more.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.